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Toronto's film festival rivals Cannes

By Francine KopunFeature Writer

Thu., Sept. 6, 2007

Once upon a time there was Cannes. And every year the plebeians who pay to watch movies would lap up the pictures of celebrities playing like pups on sunny French beaches: Brigitte Bardot frolicking with Kirk Douglas, Sophia Loren and her dramatic cleavage, Elizabeth Taylor and her husbands.

Then London and Edinburgh, Berlin and Vienna launched their own film festivals, and Robert Redford founded the serious-sounding Sundance Institute, which does not call to mind Bardot on the beach, but attracted attention nonetheless. And now here we are with film festivals in Toronto and Telluride, Montreal, Rome, Haifa, Antalya, Pusan, Abu Dhabi and Sao Paolo, all vying for celebrities and films, many at the same time of the year.

And with some people in the know saying Toronto's festival is No. 1, the competition is getting fierce.

Time Canada devotes its Sept. 10 cover story to the festival. "Toronto has grown from its place as the most influential fall film festival to the most influential film festival period," writes Time's Hollywood reporter Rebecca Winters Keegan.

Even the film critic for the influential French newspaper Le Monde has written that Cannes has been surpassed by Toronto in importance.

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"There's for sure more festivals than ever," says Piers Handling, Toronto International Film Festival chairman and CEO. "When I started in this business 20 years ago it wasn't a crowded season at all."

So the debate simmers over whether Toronto is second or equal to Cannes, but TIFF is definitely one of the brightest stars in the film festival firmament, with 349 films from 55 countries screening this season, 234 of them premieres, and total film deals ranging in value from $10 million to $50 million.

The question is, with so many new competitors, and with long-time festivals turning up the heat, can Toronto maintain its hard-won position?

Rome is rumoured to have paid Nicole Kidman to appear at its first film festival. And Venice, home to the oldest film festival in the world, acquired a new director in 2004 – Marco Müller – who has set his sights on scooping North American film premieres from TIFF. The two festivals overlap for a few days in September.

"I think Toronto has bitten into their business in a significant way over the last 15 years, for all kinds of reasons," says Handling. "Marco has gone out of his way to invite those films to Venice in competition or in prime slots to make sure that the stars are attached, to make sure there's the glitz, the glamour that comes with all that."

The result, says Handling, is that Toronto is fighting harder for world premieres because they draw international media coverage. Movie stars are often under contract to appear at premieres. World premieres get the galas, the best dates, the best theatres.

Toronto is also keeping an eye on Venice. TIFF has one of the most effective informal marketplaces for movies in the world, but Venice has often talked of setting up an actual formal marketplace for movies, with stands and screening rooms for buyers and sellers, says Handling. In the unlikely event that happens, he says, Toronto would have to respond. "We listen very closely to the industry. If they come here and say: `Venice was doing this, it was great,' we'll listen to that and adjust accordingly."

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Toronto, now considered in some quarters to be equal in importance to Cannes, has in fact become a force to be reckoned with.

"Cannes was rumoured to be considering a move to the autumn, but feared, I think, that they might not be first choice before Toronto," film critic Roger Ebert said recently.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Toronto, but Hollywood loves you because you're easy,'' writes Winters Keegan in Time's special festival edition. "Perfectly timed, impeccably organized and unfailingly kind to all varieties of movies, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has become the industry's hottest festival ticket by acting as a kind of supportive, low-maintenance girlfriend.

"Unlike its major festival sisters – that sexy cougar Cannes, 60, and parka-clad hipster Sundance, 29 – Toronto, 32, is inclusive, friendly and even prettier once you get to know her.''

In an interview with the Star, Winters Keegan said the populist nature of the Toronto festival is what makes it a favourite of Hollywood studios and distributors.

She said Cannes and similar festivals are oriented toward critics, while Toronto is aimed at ordinary audiences and the film industry just loves to see how non-critics react to their creations.

"Hollywood's a ghost town while the Toronto festival is on," she said.

For actor Jodie Foster, the allure is TIFF's mix of big and small movies.

"There's a huge amount of movies there," Foster, who stars in the festival movie The Brave One, told The Associated Press.

"Bigger movies and smaller movies all intersecting in the same place. The bigger movies get more coverage, but the smaller movies benefit from it.''

"Festivals are very jealous," says producer Nick de Pencier, whose film, Manufactured Landscapes, about the work of artist Edward Burtynsky, won Best Canadian Feature Film at last year's TIFF. "It's a real dance that you have to do because while you're waiting for one to make a decision – maybe a bigger one – you're missing the deadline on several others."

Show your film at Telluride and Sundance will turn you down cold.

"Sundance is going to say `Forget it, you've already played the U.S., you're a relatively small film, you're second-hand goods, so we're not interested. Likewise the big European ones also want a European premiere," says de Pencier.

Toronto is now big enough, says Handling, that it has a lot of pull.

"A lot of times people just decide to have their world premiere in Toronto. We don't even have to pick up the phone and do that. ... We're incredibly secure in terms of where we are. This doesn't mean that we're complacent."

It helps that Toronto is a cheap date. The cost of putting up an entourage in Cannes or Venice far outstrips the cost of spending a few days in Toronto. "It's much cheaper to attend than Cannes, especially for us Yanks with our devalued dollars," Ebert said.

To compete, festivals boast about size, stars, and exclusivity. Berlin calls itself the biggest festival, with ticket sales of 180,000; Vienna brags about focusing on arty and "challenging" films; Telluride keeps it small and exclusive and expensive – even the media must pay to attend.

Toronto has long bragged about audience participation. TIFF is a public festival, the biggest in North America, and launches the Oscar buzz.

Moviemakers are reluctant to grade festivals. They agree with Handling that comparing them is like comparing apples and oranges. Cannes takes place in Europe in May. Toronto takes place in North America in September. Venice, which launches in late August, attracts a lot of world premieres, but when it comes to the business of selling movies, Toronto dominates.

"I think it is so hard to compare the top festivals because they're doing very different jobs," says Handling. "I think there's a need for two bookended festivals – one in Europe in the spring, and one in North America in the fall."

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